


Coffee And Forced Cheer

by dragonshost



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Post-Tenroujima Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 12:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17898044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonshost/pseuds/dragonshost
Summary: Kageyama visits Fairy Tail, looking for people he already knows aren't there.





	Coffee And Forced Cheer

It was incredibly strange to see a place once so full of life and energy, and now… utterly devoid of it.  All of the vim and vigor that Fairy Tail and its members had carried with them everywhere now fell flat, and all of the vibrancy that Kageyama could recall was absent.  It wasn’t too different from how he himself had felt a while back, when the other members of Eisenwald had been arrested, or had dispersed to the wind.  It was a lonely feeling, and it felt wrong to see it reflected here.

“Can I get you anything?”

A shock flooded Kageyama’s system as he stared into the smiling face of the purple-haired woman asking his order.  Her cheerfulness - feigned though he was sure it was - was a balm on the sorrow that permeated Fairy Tail’s guild hall.

“Just coffee, please,” he told her, offering up a shadow of a smile to her.

Kageyama watched as she departed to take orders from the others in the guild hall as well, entranced a little by her.  She seemed very strong to him, to summon up smiles and cheerfulness for all of them, when the mood was so broken.

It wasn’t long before she returned with his drink.  “I’m afraid I haven’t seen you before,” she commented, setting down the coffee in front of him.  “Are you here to see someone, or to join the guild?”

He glanced down at the steaming mug in front of him, the warm fragrance of it wafting up into his face.  “I was hoping to see some people here,” he admitted.  Kageyama had known that it was a fruitless hope from the start.  The list of the lost was in the newspapers, after all.  “It was a little silly of me.  I already know that they’re not here.”

The woman’s smile fell slightly, her eyes hooding in barely-repressed pain.  “I see.”

Kageyama let out a slight laugh.  “Can I confess something to you?”  When she nodded, he continued, “I wasn’t always a good person, you know?  In fact, I was a pretty terrible one.  Cruel, too.  But my life’s turned around recently, and thanks to a lot of people, I’ve been able to make changes in myself.  Is it strange, do you think?  That I wanted them to see that?”  He swallowed thickly.  “Was I a fool for coming here, even though I knew I wouldn’t see them?”

She sat down on the stool beside his, placing her serving platter on the bar’s countertop.  “No,” she told him seriously.  “It makes perfect sense to me.”  Then she smiled once more for him, beautiful even with its full radiance masked with a tinge of sorrow.  “I’m sure that they know, even though they’re not here.”

“Thank you,” he told her.  Feeling a brief burst of bravery in his chest, he stuck out his hand.  “I’m Kageyama.”

Taking his hand, the corners of the woman’s eyes crinkled slightly in genuine happiness.  “Nice to meet you, Kageyama.  My name is Kinana.”

“Is it alright if I come back here sometimes?” he inquired, hope coloring his voice.

Kinana nodded, and stood up, grabbing her serving platter.  “Come back here anytime you want to talk, Kageyama.  I would welcome your company.”


End file.
